


Land of Sweets

by Innwich



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Victorian, Ballet Dancer, Christmas Party, Crimes & Criminals, F/F, First Kiss, Flirting, Implied Transphobia, Trans Sam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-04
Updated: 2014-12-04
Packaged: 2018-02-28 02:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2715569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Innwich/pseuds/Innwich
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruby didn’t expect to enjoy her time at the Winchesters’ Christmas party, but then again, she never thought she would spot a cross-dressing ballet dancer amongst the guests.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Land of Sweets

“You look great,” Ruby said. Despite the drag of her dress, she stood on tiptoe and tied Sam’s hair back into a short ponytail with a red ribbon.

“Are you sure it’s not too much?” Sam said.

“It’s perfect,” Ruby said.

Ruby took a comb out of her purse, and brushed Sam’s ponytail until it rested snugly on the back of Sam’s dinner jacket. Sam always let her hair grow past her shoulders. It was a pity Sam couldn’t get a nicer hairdo, but Dean would probably shit himself if he saw Sam did anything fancy with her hair.

Ruby rubbed spots of rouge onto Sam’s cheeks and lips, so that Sam looked healthy and flushed. “Don’t you look perky.”

“Dean isn’t going to like this,” Sam said.

“Dean bitches about a lot of things,” Ruby said. “A little ribbon won’t hurt him.”

The party in the Winchester home was in full swing by the time Ruby and Sam walked through the front gates and trod on the dirty snow on the gravel driveway. The house was brightly lit from the inside. The faint sound of piano music was coming from the drawing room. Ruby could make out a few notes from some disgustingly cheerful Christmas songs. Some men were singing drunkenly at the top of their voices, while other guests laughed, entertained by the display.

Ruby wanted to puke from how heart-warming everything was.

“You promised you would try to enjoy it,” Sam said.

Ruby swore Sam could read her mind. “I only promised I wouldn’t pick a fight.”

“Ruby.”

“Be nice to me, Sam, and I’ll get you that dress in time for Christmas,” Ruby said, jabbing at Sam’s chest.

“I’m always nice to you,” Sam said. “How did you get Crowley to make it anyway?”

“It helps that my family owns his ass,” Ruby said.

“Yeah? I bet your family owns his house and his shop too,” Sam said.

“And his son, and his mutt, and the clothes on his back,” Ruby said.

“I would feel sorry for him if he weren’t a slimy bastard,” Sam said.

“Don’t go all sappy on me, Sammy,” Ruby said.

“Don’t call me Sammy,” Sam said good-humoredly. “I’m older than you.”

Ruby rang the doorbell. After a long minute, a boy answered the door. He was a gangly teen, wearing an ill-fitted suit that he was too narrow to fill. By the look of its cut, the suit had gone out of fashion at least a decade ago.

“Dean said not to let her in,” the boy said sullenly.

“Well, Dean isn’t here now, is he?” Ruby said.

The boy deepened his scowl. He had pale hair and pale eyes; he could afford to go out in the sun for a while.

“Ruby, this is my brother, Adam. Adam, this is Ruby,” Sam said.

“So you’re the bastard son,” Ruby said to Adam.

Adam lifted the corners of his lips and bared his teeth. For a second there, he looked like one of those hairless street cats that Ruby often saw lurking around the factories. Ruby could just pick him up and feed him to her family dogs.

Sam hurried Ruby into the house and away from the fuming Adam. “Do you have to make everyone in my family hate you?”

“It’s not my fault your brothers are assholes,” Ruby said.

Sam shook her head but led Ruby to the drawing room where the party was held. The room was crowded, and most of the furniture had been pushed back against the walls to free up more space. Most of the guests were middle-class tradesmen and craftsmen, the sort of people that the Winchesters mingled with on a daily business.

A couple of off-duty cops stared at Ruby over their glasses of ale.

Ruby waved at them lazily. In her family’s line of business, everyone knew who everyone was, even if the cops didn’t have the balls to put her behind bars.

“Play nice,” Sam said.

“You keep asking for the impossible, Sam.” Ruby hooked her arm around Sam’s, and Sam walked her to the far end of the drawing room. The terrace door was opened to the garden, and Ruby could see a few people giggling and drinking ale on the terrace.

But outside of the few stragglers, a trio of men was huddled by the door, away from the festivities in the drawing room. There were no little burning lights at the end of cigarettes. They were not out there for a smoke, and they weren’t talking to each other. Each seemed to be staring into the night outside the house.

“If they’re having a duel, they’re doing a poor job at killing each other,” Ruby said.

“Dueling is illegal,” Sam said.

“When has that stopped anyone?” Ruby said.

“Right. I forgot who I was talking to for a second there,” Sam said.

The tallest of the group was a large black man. His silken top hat sat squarely on his bald head. He was dressed in a bespoken dinner suit that was better cut than anything anyone was wearing at the party. His collar was starched stiff around his wide neck.

The other of the trio was a dark-haired man that had lost his hat somewhere during the night. He was unshaven and his suit was wrinkled. He was only slightly less disheveled than those men that slept on the streets.

Then there was the redhead with the nice suit and hat. He was slim. His dinner jacket was cinched tight at the waist. His straight-cut trousers encased a pair of long legs. He was pale under the lights.

Ruby trailed her gaze down the doe eyes, stern lips, small chin, and smooth neck.

She knew she recognized that profile.

“That’s Uriel and Castiel Milton,” Sam said. “Not sure about the other guy.”

“What are the Milton boys doing here?” Ruby said.

“Dean invited them. Dean used to date one of their sisters,” Sam said.

“Let me guess, Dean did the love ‘em and ditch ‘em routine?” Ruby said.

“You know what Dean is like,” Sam said.

“And now the Miltons are here. Maybe we’ll see a duel tonight after all,” Ruby said.

“Stop saying that.” Sam groaned.

The newspapers guys loved the Miltons. The rich uptight family churned out juicy scandals every so often. It probably didn’t help that the patriarch lived with his dozens of kids on a huge mansion on the hill outside of town.

“Can you get the two Misters Tall-and-Dark out of here?” Ruby said. “I want some alone time with Mister Mysterious.”

“What?” Sam said. She looked at the redhead. “Oh, no, you don’t.”

“A girl has to entertain herself somehow,” Ruby said. “Come on, Sam.”

“I’m only doing this because we’re friends.” Sam sighed. She walked out to the terrace. “Good evening.”

The redhead turned his back to Sam when Sam approached.

“Mr. Winchester,” the bald man said.

Sam didn’t flinch. She smiled. “Dean wants to see you, Uriel. You too, Castiel.”

“We don’t take orders from your brother,” Castiel said.

“Maybe not, but he is your host for tonight,” Sam said. “Please, he wants to say hello.”

Uriel opened his mouth, looking ready to argue, but Castiel raised a hand and said, “We’ll come with you.”

“Castiel,” Uriel said hotly.

“Sam is right. We’re their guests,” Castiel said. “We’ll do as they ask, for now.”

Sam led the two back into the drawing room, the three of them cutting through the crowd easily. Sam made small talk about the late snow, while Uriel responded with a grunt or two and Castiel stayed silent.

Ruby took up a vacant spot next to the redhead on the terrace. The December night air was markedly colder than the drawing room and its glowing fireplace.

“There are easier ways to get arrested,” Ruby said.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”

“Sure you do, Ms. Milton,” Ruby said. “Or should I call you Anna?”

Anna turned to look at her at that. “You’re Ms. Knife.”

“You’re taking this well.”

“Am I?”

“Most people run away screaming and crying when they hear of me,” Ruby said.

“Maybe I’m more open-minded than most people,” Anna said, and there was a twinkle in her eyes. “We’ve met once.”

“At the theater. I remember.”

Anna smiled. “Did you end up going to Saint Petersburg to see _the Nutcracker_ , like you said?”

Ruby had been squeezed into a bodice that she’d had to loosen halfway through the ballet in the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. “Yeah, it’s pretty awesome.”

“I wish I could go. They have such a beautiful city,” Anna said. “I’ve seen photos of it. It looks great in the winter.”

“We can go now if you want,” Ruby said. She leaned against the chilly brick wall, and put on a flippant smile. “With how cold it gets, maybe the snow won’t have completely melted by the time we reach it.”

Anna laughed. “No, I shouldn’t. I’m waiting for someone.”

“Is it Dean Winchester?” Ruby said.

“What makes you say that?” Anna said with a raised eyebrow.

“Because I’ve heard you’ve slept with Dean,” Ruby said. Anna raised her eyebrow higher at that. Ruby said, “You know, he’s kind of an asshole.”

“I’m starting to get that now,” Anna said.

“If he didn’t recognize you in this suit, then he isn’t worth waiting for,” Ruby said. “Because that suit you’re wearing? It makes for a crappy disguise.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Anna said. “Only you recognized me so far.”

“I’ll recognize you from anywhere,” Ruby said, the words rolling off her tongue before she thought about them.

The words hung heavily in the air. Anna stared back at her. It was like the air was shimmering with the smoke of something burning low and lazy just beneath the dusting of snow on the terrace.

“Do you want to take this somewhere else?” Ruby said. “I know a great place to go.”

“We can’t just leave,” Anna said, turning to the terrace door and the roomful of drunkards behind it. Her eyes were wide in the light. “My brothers will look for me.”

“Do you always listen to what you are told to do?” Ruby said.

“No,” Anna said, lifting her chin in defiance. “I ran away to do ballet.”

“That was what I heard,” Ruby said, grabbing Anna’s hand. “Let’s go.”

They ran along a trail that led deeper into the garden.

The lights from the house spilled confusedly into the garden.

The trees in the garden had pretty much been left to grow wild. Not that the Winchesters could afford a gardener. A dust of light snow covered the trees and bushes. There were some lamps hanging from trees, presumably not to let guests wandered into the wilderness that was called a garden.

The garden was quiet. The cicadas had disappeared since the early days of the winter, and the birds had retired to their nests for the night. The only sounds were the water falling from the cupid statue at the top of the fountain and the crunch of new snow under their shoes.

It was actually kind of pretty.

“This is beautiful,” Anna said, peering up at the top of the fountain, stretching her slender neck. She stood straight in her suit. She had the posture of a dancer. Not many women these days held themselves like that anymore.

But Ruby also saw the lines between Anna’s eyes and at the corners of her mouth. She was pretty, and a little broken and cracked, tossed to the side. “If we ever get a production of _the Nutcracker_ here, you can totally dance in it.”

“You think I can dance the part of Clara?” Anna said.

“No, you are the Nutcracker, the Prince of the Land of Sweets,” Ruby said. “I’m Clara. I fought off the mice for you, didn’t I?”

Anna chuckled. It lit up her eyes. “You shouldn’t say that about my brothers.”

“I do a lot of things that I shouldn’t do,” Ruby said.

“Yeah, I kinda get that,” Anna said.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” Ruby said. “I do a lot of things, but I don’t dance.”

“I can teach you sometimes,” Anna said.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Ruby said.

“You better,” Anna said, with that smile still lingering at the corners of her lips.

“You don’t have to worry about that.” Ruby smirked, pulling Anna down so she could kiss her on the mouth.

Anna met Ruby half-way, curling an arm around her waist, resting a hand on the swell of her back.

Ruby slipped her fingers into Anna’s hair to get a better grip, loosening a few strands of red hair from Anna’s bun, and knocking her top hat from her head.

Anna tasted like something rich and deep and sweet and just a bit bitter. Some that tasted like expensive chocolate. It had to be something hat Anna had eaten before coming over here, because the Winchesters didn’t have the kind of dough to buy something like this.

Ruby pulled away. “That tastes good. What is it? Chocolate?”

Anna licked at her own lips, and damn if it didn’t make Ruby want to kiss her again. “It’s the chocolate cake I have for dessert.”

Ruby tugged at Ann’s lapels and gave her a light peck on the lips again. “Mmm. I was right. You must be from the Land of Sweets, because I’ve never tasted anything sweeter than you.”

“Do you say that to everyone?” Anna said.

“No, I only say it to nice ballet girls who I want to get a free show from,” Ruby said, smoothing her hands over Anna’s narrow shoulders. It hadn’t been that long ago Ruby had seen those shoulders bare and sweaty under stage lights. “If you know what I mean.”

“That was what I thought.” Anna laughed breathlessly, and she had a pretty flush on her cheeks. She pulled out a slip of paper from her breast pocket. “You’re in luck. I’m dancing tomorrow.”

The paper was a written order that admitted the holder to a _Swan Lake_ ballet.

“Do you always carry tickets to your show in your pockets?” Ruby said amusedly.

“I was hoping to give it to Dean.”

Ruby plucked the paper from Anna’s hands, and planted a deep kiss to wipe that frown from her face. “No point in wasting a good seat, right?”

“Thank you.” Anna grinned.

“But I was actually talking about sex earlier, when I said I wanted a free show.”

“I know. I’m not stupid.” Anna leaned down to kiss Ruby, but they were both laughing too hard to seal their mouths together. It was a sloppy kiss that ended with Ruby leaning their foreheads against each other’s.

“Do you know which is my favorite scene from _Swan Lake_?” Ruby said.

“I don’t know,” Anna said.

“I love it when the Black Swan shows up at the prince’s party and pulls one over the prince,” Ruby said.

“Am I the prince again?” Anna said.

A fine dust of snow had gathered on Anna’s brows and eyelashes. Anna had skin that was as pale as the snow. If she shed the dinner suit, she could easily pass for a creature that belonged out here in the winter, under the crowded trees, and next to the running water.

“No, you’re the Swan Queen,” Ruby said.

“Then why do you like that scene?” Anna said.

“I guess I just love seeing the bad guys win for a change,” Ruby said with a wicked grin.

Anna kissed Ruby long and slow, leaving that rich moist taste of chocolate cake in her mouth. “I love it too.”


End file.
